It's The Real Thing

March 23, 1986|By T. W. Black

Long before Coca Cola gave us the real thing (or at least that slogan) Joe McCoy, ''King of the Bootleggers,'' was delivering quality hooch to satisfied customers. Sailfish Point in Martin County was known as McCoy's Point during the 1920s Prohibition years, and Joe quickly developed a reputation for smuggling real liquor instead of bathtub gin. The Bahamas, then a British colony, was the source of McCoy's wares and his reputation was so unblemished that he received perhaps the greatest compliment in the American lexicon: His name became a cliche.